Defense cites new case in Roberson death row appeal

PALESTINE, Texas (KLTV) - The defense team for a man on death row for the death of his child has cited a new case to support their claim that their client needs a new trial. [KTRE]

Robert Roberson's legal team has turned to a recent California court ruling in their effort to overturn his death sentence, arguing the decision strengthens their position that he deserves a new trial based on challenges to shaken baby syndrome science.

Roberson, imprisoned in Palestine, was found guilty in 2003 of murdering his daughter Nikki two years earlier. Last October, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted his execution days before he would have become the first person executed in the United States for a conviction grounded in shaken baby syndrome theory. The legal reprieve gave his attorneys additional time to pursue new avenues of appeal.

The defense team's latest filing draws parallels between Roberson's case and that of another defendant whose case was recently reconsidered by a California appellate court. According to the defense arguments, the two cases share striking similarities: both men sought emergency medical attention for their daughters, both children exhibited life-threatening symptoms including respiratory failure and loss of consciousness before arriving at hospitals, and both children showed brain injuries on scans. Critically, both fathers attributed their children's conditions to short falls from beds, explanations that treating physicians at the time rejected as inadequate to account for the serious neurological injuries documented.

The California decision carries significant weight because it highlights evolving medical understanding. The defense noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics did not acknowledge until 2020 that short falls from beds can indeed cause fatal injuries and that no injury pattern is unique to shaking. Furthermore, the defense emphasized that systematic scientific review of shaken baby syndrome evidence did not occur until years after both men's trials concluded, and that review determined the scientific foundation for shaken baby syndrome convictions contained fundamental flaws rooted in circular reasoning and other methodological problems.

This represents the second major legal filing by Roberson's attorneys drawing on recent court decisions. An earlier notice filed in August cited a comparable Georgia case that had similarly called into question the reliability of shaken baby syndrome convictions.